lead to gold
by ncfan
Summary: -Mayuri, Nemu- He's like an alchemist at his work.


**Characters**: Mayuri, Nemu**  
Summary**: He's like an alchemist at his work.**  
Pairings**: None**  
Warnings/Spoilers**: No spoilers**  
Timeline**: None needed**  
Author's Note**: This is basically just Mayuri going through the process of creating Nemu; nothing too deep, at least not in my opinion, since I've already covered parts of this in other works.**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own Bleach.

* * *

The putting together of the girl herself is more a matter of curiosity than anything else. Though Mayuri would appreciate someone to assist him, an assistant whose reliability and trustworthiness he could guarantee, he also puts Nemu together because he wants to see if he can.

She is not Mayuri's first attempt at creating life; there were two others, her "sisters", if the term is allowed. They, of course, were flawed and failed, deconstructing in a way that even Mayuri has to admit was quite ugly. Nemu is his first attempt with the modified formula, and, Mayuri can only hope, the third time truly will be the charm.

It's slow, laborious work, a draining but rewarding task, taking just a little over a month. For that time, Mayuri sequesters himself in his laboratories, allowing a single subordinate in only to bring him his meals at the designated times. To him he is like an alchemist at his work, poring over the ingredients to maybe make gold out of lead. He can hear him muttering to himself, sometimes make vehement exclamations and that's when he know it's time to go, skating out of the laboratories like a frightened cat.

Staying in the same vicinity as Kurotsuchi Mayuri when he's beginning to get frustrated isn't exactly the sort of decision made by anyone who values their health.

Mayuri gathers his pieces of "lead". The arms, legs, hands, feet; bits of muscle grafted around bone to hold it all in together. Internal organs, made synthetically so that they will be stronger than the normal organ. Eventually, a head, with eyes, ears, mouth and nose, painstakingly crafted. Mayuri considers himself an artist when all is said and done.

It is most difficult to construct the brain and the nervous system. Blood vessels and veins and capillaries are easy enough; so are the lungs and the heart. Even getting the finest details of the musculature is small fish. However, the brain is a delicate organ, and the nervous system is far more complicated than even Mayuri thought it would be. This is the primary cause of all delays when it comes to constructing Nemu. Mayuri knows that her otherwise perfectly functional body will be useless if Nemu's brain can not send and receive signals to and from the rest of her body. What use is a living doll if her brain won't work?

Eventually, however, after extensive consultation from every diagram and anatomical text Mayuri can get his hands on, he finds his solution, and is able to produce a brain and a nervous system that he is sure will function within normal parameters.

Mayuri, of course, double-checks everything; he's determined that this will be the _last_ time he has to create a living being and that the drawing board will not be hauled out again. Mayuri would include others in helping him with the construction; however, he does not trust any one of them to do the job right and he is well-assured of his own intellectual superiority over his subordinates. He knows himself to be the only one capable of this; he will succeed, and he will do it by himself.

The heart is found to work, as do the lungs. There's a little trouble with the digestive system, and Mayuri momentarily considers removing it altogether and thus eliminate Nemu's need to eat, before deciding that that would be more trouble than it's worth; if he removes one system in the body, suddenly all the others start falling apart (The sheer level of interdependence in the human body of one organ system on all the others grows just a little annoying). Mayuri fixes the glitch soon enough, and comes down to the final stage of his work.

The skin goes on now, over all the organs, the bones, the muscle and tissue and veins. Pale skin that won't burn in the sun, pale skin that he has somehow managed to construct without pores and avoid overheating at the same time, so the girl will never sweat. Fingernails and toenails, the palest shade of pink natural are attached to fingers and toes and made so hard that they will never chip or break or split. They will never grow, either, staying at just the perfect length. Then lips over the mouth. Hair, Mayuri knows, will grow of its own accord eventually; it will be black, he decides.

When all is said and done, Mayuri takes a single step back, and stares for a moment, admiring his work.

Now, comes the moment of truth.

He takes the defibrillators, and applies the electric jolt that, if all goes as planned, will jump-start Nemu's heart and brain.

Mayuri waits for a few moments, with bated breath.

And, then, green eyes, for the moment devoid of eyelashes, flutter open, and stare straight ahead for a moment, before looking at him, with intelligence, with life.

Mayuri's grin is absolutely evil.

Here now, he knows he has done what all swore he could never do. There are those that insist that only God can create life. Following that line of reasoning, Mayuri supposes he might just be God, because he has just created life. A real, breathing girl whose heart beats and whose veins pump blood.

The alchemist has just turned his heap of lead to a tower of gold.


End file.
